Thoughts About Conceptual Models and Measurement Validity

Abstract

This essay focuses on measurement validity, with an emphasis on the connections among the conceptual, theoretical, and empirical components of nursing research and nursing practice. Although attention typically is given to the connection between the concepts of a middle-range theory and the research instruments or practice tools that are used to measure those concepts, more attention needs to be given to the congruence between conceptual model concepts and research instruments or practice tools.

Instrumento para consulta de enfermagem à puérpera na atenção básica

“…Empirical indicators are experimental propositions used to measure and provide evidences on the concepts of a theory (10) . In this study, empirical indicators were considered changed manifestations of human needs of postpartum mothers.…”

Pensamiento estadístico: herramienta para el desarrollo de la enfermería como ciencia

“…Con base en lo anterior, la estadística y la teoría se informan mutuamente, ya que cualquier análisis estadístico cuya finalidad no esté determinada por una teoría, con la definición de sus respectivas hipótesis y métodos, carece de sentido (6). Considerando la importancia de aportar conocimiento disciplinar, es una prioridad desarrollar instrumentos que sean congruentes con el enfoque de modelos conceptuales y teorías de rango medio de enfermería (55).…”

Habermasian knowledge interests: epistemological implications for health sciences

“…Nursing knowledge, more than instrumental reason (Petrovskaya et al ., ), looks to understand phenomena through reflection and critical analysis, considering context, tradition, and life experience. In contrast to the predictive character or the calculations of validity (Fawcett, ), nursing models point to care as an aid in the adaptation to stimuli, to achieving independence in the satisfying of basic needs, or as a cultural adaptation of practices related to health, illness, or death (Chochinov, ; Granero‐Molina et al ., ). To establish the concept of theory and the basic knowledge of nurses in the HS disciplines (Karnick, ), the value of their position ‘alongside the ill person’ must be acknowledged, something which is hardly represented on an epistemological level.…”